Irish Masters - trip report

dropsy

I played in the Masters last Saturday after winning a ticket (and $1100) on Pokerstars and figured I'd post a summary here FWIW.

I started at table nine with Surindar, John Coughlan (eventually finished 8th) and Sean Donaldson (finished 5th) and others. Lost a few chips in first hour or so and was down from 5K to about 3.5 by the first break. I didn't make it back above 5K for the remaining 6 hours i played! Two hands of note on that table - Surindar raises into Sean D's BB and Sean doubles the bet, Surindar thinks for a while and (correctly presuming he was ahead) pushes all-in with AQ - Sean calls with AJs and hits a runner runner flush to knock Surindar out! Sean was bluffing and getting lucky a lot in the time on that table and had a substantial stack when we eventually got broken up.

Best hand I saw was when i got JJ in under the gun (I got JJ 5 times in total, played them 5 different ways and they only paid off once) with blinds at 50-100. I'm short stacked so I flat called - three others call - flop comes 10J10 - both blind check and I check to button who also checks. Turn was an ace - a great card for me as it also put a possible diamond flush on the board - SB bets 200, BB folds and I thought about moving in but wanted to try and trap some more.....button calls and i'm cocking the trigger - river was another A - worst possible card for me ....BB bets, I throw mine away muttering - button calls and they chop it with an A each - so there was only 1 card in the entire deck that could have scuppered me on river and it landed - oh well. (Maybe I should have bet the turn but in hindsight I think I would do the same if it happened again).

A while later Marcel Lusky comes to our table and is knocked out soon after when caught on a bluff when a great call by a pair of sixes found him with A high. So, after over 6 hours play I have about 2.5 k in chips and our table is broken up - I'm sent to table 1 with Sean Donaldson....Joe Beavers is also there and a few gutshotters. 79 players left. A few hands in I get QQ and reraise an early position raiser all-in. He calls, turns 66 and I double through to just less than 5K.

Then, about 30 minutes in, I make my only mistakes of the night - with still circa 5K in chips i get JJ again in early position. 2nd to act raises all in for 2.8k - I think hard about it and, figuring that by calling or reraising I was giving anyone with a high Ace in late position a good reason to call, I throw them away. All fold and he shows A7c......I shoulda pushed :-(

Two hands later I look down and see JJ for the 5th time - I'm under the gun and raise the 400 BB to 1200...all fold to Sean Donaldson who, with a large stack, looks at me and throws in 5 1K chips.....now, I'd been watching him steal blinds and raises all day and, mindful of what he'd reraised Surnidar with much earlier in the day, I convinced myself to call - he flips KK and I'm walking in 72nd or so out of 163. Again, I should have thrown them away as I could have afforded to wait but instead of looking for a reason to fold in that situation I was looking for a reason to call and found it.

Overall, it was a great learning experience and one that I want to repeat - time to start saving.

Dropsy

Hectorjelly

Good report! I played a tournament last week & I got AK at least 10 times. I never saw AA or KK, just AK.